At the risk of going off topic I'd like to hear more about your curing and cold smoking. Are you wet curing in a brine? Do you use Prague powder #1 or similar (Morton Tender Quick, etc.)?
I like all the fruit woods. They add a sweetness to the smoke. My favorite is plum but peach or apricot is close and apple or even cherry is excellent. I like to mix fruitwood with hickory. Our local alders and maples make nice smoke, too. I ran plum and hickory for my ribs yesterday - 4th of July.
I don't have a cold smoker. It's something I aspire to. My buddy has a ratty old smokehouse but what comes out of it is pure heaven.
SP, I don't use any instacure, pink salt, etc. Only salt. But, if I were curing butcher bought meats I would use some prague powder #2 for dry curing. The only meat I cure is from the hogs I kill here on the farm, or sometimes for friends who bring their hogs to a killin'. I know the hogs are healthy, and I have hands on them every step of the butchering process. So I know the meat hasn't been soiled with stomach contents, dropped on the floor or so on. I have never cured with a brine, but nothing wrong with that either. I just want to remove moisture as quick as possible, and straight salt does that fast.
Most times my bacon sides, and hams are salted down when they are still warm. Bacon cures for up to 5 days and is then washed and hung. Hams or shoulders take longer, and are "overhauled" or reworked with salt at a week, then again at about a month. They remain salted for 45-60 days before being hung and smoked.
I only smoke dry cured meats on dry, cool days, and I may have to smoke for 3 or 4 days to get the color I like. Most times building a fire once a day in the morning before work. Sometimes I start it back before bed. Generally 20-30 hours of smoke before I get a nice mahogany color.
I've never tried anything other than apple or cherry in the fruit woods, and both are great! I really like the apple for bacon, and have used it for years. Hams and shoulders generally get straight hickory, or hickory white oak mix.
My old smokehouse had a fire pit in the floor, my new one I just pipe the smoke in so as not to raise the temperature but very little. So, now I can smoke on warmer days.
